n himself if he goes on in the way he is
now going?"

"I know it. Simple addition will determine that, in five minutes. In
the first place, instead of consulting me, or some one who knows all
about it, he goes and buys that mill for just double what it is worth,
and on the mere representation of a stranger, who had been himself
deceived, and had an interest in misleading him, in order to get a bad
bargain off of his hands. But that is just like your young chaps,
now-a-days. They know every thing, and go ahead without talking to
anybody. I could have told him, had he consulted me, that, instead of
making money by the concern, he would sink all he had in less than two
years."

"He is sanguine as to the result."

"I know. He told me, yesterday, that he expected not only to clear his
land for nothing, but to make two or three thousand dollars a year out
of the lumber for the next ten years. Preposterous!"

"Why didn't you disabuse him of his error, Mr. Page? It was such a good
opportunity."

"Let him ask for my advice, if he wants it. It's a commodity I never
throw away."

"You might save him from the loss of his little patrimony."

"He deserves to lose it for being such a fool. Buy a steam saw-mill two
miles from his land, and expect to make money by clearing it?
Ridiculous!"

"Your age and experience will give your advice weight with him, I am
sure, Mr. Page. I really think you ought to give a word or two of
warning, at least, and thus make an effort to prevent his running
through with what little he has. A capital to start with in the world
is not so easily obtained, and it is a pity to see Jordan waste his as
he is doing."

"No, sir," replied Page. "I shall have nothing to say to him. If he
wants my opinion, and asks for it, he shall have it in welcome; not
without."

The individuals about whom these persons were conversing was a young
man named Jordan, who, at majority, came into the possession of fifty
acres of land and about six thousand dollars. The land was still in
forest and lay about two miles from a flourishing town in the West,
which stood on the bank of a small river that emptied into the Ohio
some fifty miles below.

As soon as Jordan became the possessor of the property, he began to
turn his thoughts toward its improvement, in order to increase its
value. The land did not lie contiguous to his native town, but near to
S--, where he was a stranger. To S--he went, and staying at one of the
ho